The (pre)school environment is an important setting to improve children’s health. Especially, the (pre)school playground provides a major opportunity to intervene. This review presents an overview of the existing evidence on the value of both school and preschool playgrounds on children’s health in terms of physical activity, cognitive and social outcomes. In addition, we aimed to identify which playground characteristics are the strongest correlates of beneficial effects and for which subgroups of children effects are most distinct. In total, 13 experimental and 17 observational studies have been summarized of which 10 (77%) and 16 (94%) demonstrated moderate to high methodological quality, respectively. Nearly all experimental studies (n = 11) evaluated intervention effects on time spent in different levels of physical activity during recess. Research on the effects of (pre)school playgrounds on cognitive and social outcomes is scarce (n = 2). The experimental studies generated moderate evidence for an effect of the provision of play equipment, inconclusive evidence for an effect of the use of playground markings, allocating play space and for multi-component interventions, and no evidence for an effect of decreasing playground density, the promotion of physical activity by staff and increasing recess duration on children’s health. In line with this, observational studies showed positive associations between play equipment and children’s physical activity level. In contrast to experimental studies, significant associations were also found between children’s physical activity and a decreased playground density and increased recess duration. To confirm the findings of this review, researchers are advised to conduct more experimental studies with a randomized controlled design and to incorporate the assessment of implementation strategies and process evaluations to reveal which intervention strategies and playground characteristics are most effective. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-11-59 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited.
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The first part of this paper provides a series of conceptual critiques to illustrate how the recent move to inaugurate a “post-nature” world works to vindicate anthropocentric perspectives and a techno-managerial approach to the environmental crisis. We contend with this premise and suggest that troubling nature has profound implications for education. In the second part, we provide case studies from nature-based programs in The Netherlands and Canada to demonstrate how anthropocentric thinking can be reinscribed even as we work towards “sustainability”. Despite the tenacity of human hubris and the advent of the Anthropocene, we suggest these troubled times are also rich with emerging “post-anthropocentric” perspectives and practices. As such we offer “rewilding” as a means to think about education that moves beyond the romantic vestiges of “Nature” without lapsing into delusions of human exceptionalism. http://dx.doi.org/10.13135/2384-8677/2334 https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/
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Dit onderzoek richt zich op de mate waarin docenten van de opleiding Leisure & Events Management (LEM) van NHL Stenden hogeschool buitenonderwijs toepassen en welke barrières en motiverende factoren zij hierbij ervaren. Buitenonderwijs wordt steeds vaker gezien als een manier om de leerprestaties te verbeteren, stress te verminderen en sociale cohesie te bevorderen. Dit onderzoek speelt in op de vraag hoe buitenonderwijs kan bijdragen aan deze doelen en wat docenten belemmert of motiveert bij het implementeren ervan. De hypothese was dat minder dan de helft van de docenten ervaring zou hebben met buitenonderwijs en dat docenten met ervaring minder barrières en sterkere motivatiefactoren zouden ervaren dan hun onervaren collega's. De conclusie is dat hoewel de meeste docenten al ervaring hebben met buitenonderwijs, de implementatie ervan beperkt blijft door verschillende barrières, met name de fysieke en organisatorische aspecten. Desondanks blijven de motiverende factoren, zoals het verbeteren van de gezondheid en betrokkenheid van studenten, een sterke drijfveer voor docenten om buitenonderwijs te blijven gebruiken. De verschillen tussen ervaren en onervaren docenten zijn niet significant.
